1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns inflatable sachets containing an effervescent dry powder activatable to release gases and thereby outwardly billow the sachet.
2. The Related Art
Cleansing products have traditionally been marketed in the form of bar soaps, shower gels and mousses, the lather being generated by mechanical and aerosol dispensers. Mechanical implements have been used by consumers to assist in lather formation and physical removal of dirt through scrubbing. Wash cloths have been the implement of choice throughout recent history.
New formats for cleansing hold great consumer appeal. For instance, surfactant and conditioner compositions have been layered into apertured wipes such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,280,757 (McAtee et al.). Open-mesh sponges such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,066,607 (Gordon et at.) have assisted in generating foam from shower gels thereby improving speed and quality of lathering.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,931 (Fowler et al.) describes a substantially dry, disposable personal care article wherein a surfactant system is dried onto a water-insoluble non-woven or similar substrate. A second generation of dual layered towelette has been reported. See WO 00/42961 (Smith), WO 01/08542 (Cen et al.), WO 01/08640 (Smith et al.), WO 01/08641 (Lorenzi et al.), WO 01/08655 (Phipps et at.), WO 01/08656 (Lorenzi et at.), WO 01/08657 (Lorenzi et at.) and WO 01/08658 (Cawkwell et at.) all describing disposable personal cleansing towelettes with lathering surfactant on at least a two layer cloth with one layer being a high loft substrate. Consumers are expected to place the towelette under water to generate a surfactant lather.
Another approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,063,390 (Farrell et al.) which reports a wiping article structured as a pouch containing an effervescent cleanser composition. At least one of the pouch walls are water permeable. When wetted with water, the composition components of an acid material and an alkaline material effervesce to generate carbon dioxide, as well as exuding copious amounts of lather from a surfactant component. A plumped “pillow” arises from the effervescent action.
EP 0 836 842 B1 (Moore et al.) discloses oval shaped disposable non-woven cleaning articles. These are formed of hydro-entangled fibers wherein entanglement is oriented in a direction parallel to the major axis of the oval.
Elongate shaped pouches are particularly suitable for gripping; they tend to more ergonomically fit within the hand. For the present invention, an effervescent sachet system was sought which would be easily grippable.
A problem encountered with sachets formed from non-woven materials is their tendency to pucker. When the dry effervescent composition is activated with water, the resultant evolution of gases inflates the sachet into a bulging pillow arrangement. Deformation of the sachet watts results in a substantial pucker of the pillow configuration. Both for aesthetic and ergonomic reasons, the pucker is undesirable.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cosmetic article with an activatable effervescent cleansing system which upon inflation by effervescent gases causes the article to inflate but avoids deformation and puckering of the article.
It is to be noted that the subsequently described invention is broader than the objects or technical problems it is directed to solve.